The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-12-15
TABERNACLE SERVICES.
STRAlNiNG AT A GNAT AND SWAL-
LOWING A CAMEL.

GOWlIN1 - NNMEL.
DR.. TaImage Says There Are a Thousand
Scoundrels Outside the Church to One
Inside of It-why the Law Taxing In
comes Was Repealed.
BROOKLYN, Dec. 11.-To night the
Rev. T. De Witt .Talmage, D. D., preached
at the Tabernacle, this city, on ':Too
Much Ado About Small Things" His
text was: aye blind guides, which strain
at a gnat. and swallow camel Matt.
xxiii, "a. The eloquent preacher said:
A proverb is compact wisdom, knowl-
edge in chunks, library in sentence,
the electricity of many clouds discharged
III one bolt, river put through mill
race. When Christ quotes the proverb of
the text, he means to set forth the ludi-
crous behavior of those who make great
bluster about small sins and have no ap-
probation of great ones.
In my text small insect and large
quadruped are brought into comparison
u gnat and a camel You have in
museum or on the desert seen the latter,
n great awkward, sprawling creature,
with back two stories high, and stomach
having a collection of reservoirs for
desert travel, an animal forbidden to the
Jews as food, and in many literatures en-
titled ''the ship of the DESERT The gnat
spoken of in the text is in the grub form.
1t is born in pool or pond, after a few
weeks becomes a chrysalis, and then after
few days becomes the gnat as we recog-
nize it. But the insect spoken of in the
text is in its very smallest shape, and it
yet inhabits the water-for my text is
misprint and ought to read ''strain out a
gnat. ="
My text shows you the prince of in
consistencies. A man after long obser-
vation has formed the suspicion that in
cup of water he is about to drink
there is a grub or the grandparent of a
gnat. He goes and gets sieve or strain
er. He takes the water and pours it
through the sieve in the broad light. He
says, II would rather do anything al
most than drink this water until this
larva be extirpated." This water is
brought under inquisition. The export
ment is successful. The water rushes
through the sieve and leaves against the
side of the sieve the grub or gnat. Then
the man carefully removes the insect
and drinks the water in placidity. But
going out one day, and hungry, he de-
YOURS ''ship of the desert, the camel,
which the Jews were forbidden to eat
The gastronomer has no conjunction Of
conscience. He suffers from no indiges-
tion. He puts the lower jaw under the
camel's forefoot, and his upper jaw over
the hump of the camel's back, and gives
one swallow and the dromedary disap-
pears forever. He strained out gnat,
he swallowed q camel.
Wide Christ's audience were yet smil-
ing at the appositeness and wit of his
illustration-fo smile they did in church,
unless they were too stupid to under
stand the hyperbole-Christ practically
said to them, THAT is you." Punctil-
Ious about small things; reckless about
affairs of great magnitude. No subject
ever withered under a surgeons knife
more bitterly than did the Pharisees un-
der Christ's scalpel of truth. AS an
anatomst will take human body to
pieces and put them under a microscope
for examination, so Christ finds his way
TO the heart of the dead Pharisee and
cuts it out and puts it under the glass of
inspection for all generations to exam
ine. Those Pharisees thought that
Christ would flatter them and oompli-
ment them, and how they must have
writhed under the red hot words as he
said, ''Ye fools, ye whited sepulchers
We blind guides, which strain out gnat
and swallow camel"
There are in our day great many
gnats strained out and a great many
camels swallowed, and il is the object OF
this sermon to sketch few persons whC
are extensively engaged In that business
First: remark that all those minis
ters of the Gospel are photographed il
the text who are very scrupulous G.bou
the conventionahties OF religion, but pu
no particular stress upon matters of vas
importance Church services ought t.
be grave and solemn. There is no room
for frivolity in religious convocation
But there are illustrations and there ar
hyperboles like that Of Christ in the tex
that will irradiate with smiles any intelli
gent auditory. There are men like thos
blind guides of the text who advocat
only those things in religious servic
which draw the corners of the moutl
down, and denounce all those thing
which have a tendency to draw the cor
ners of the mouth up, and these men vii
go to installations and to presbyteries an
to conferences and to associations, thei
pockets full of fine sieves to strain on
the gnats, while in their own churches a
home every Sunday there are fifty peopl
sound asleep. They make their churche
great dormitory, and their somniferou
sermons are a cradle, and the drawle
out hymns lullaby, while some wakefu
soul in a pew with her fan keep the file
off unconscious persons approximate
Now, say it is worse to sleep in churc
than to smile in church, for the latte
implies at least attention, while the foi
mer implies the indifference of the heal
ers and the stupidity of the speaker
In old age, or from physical infirn
ity, or from long watching wit
the sick, drowsiness will sometimes ovel
power one; but when minister of tn
gospel looks off upon an audience an
finds healthy and intelligent peop
struggling with drowsiness, it is time fc
him to give out the doxology or pre-
nounce the benediction. The great fau
with church services today is not tc
much vivacity, but too much somnolenc,
The one is an irritating gnat that ma
be easily strained out the other is
great, sprawling, sleepy eyed camel Q
the dry desert. In all our Sabbat
schools, in all our Bible classes, in all OF
pulpits we need to brighten up our relij
ious messages with such Christ lii
vivacity as we find in the text.
/ take down from my library II
biographies of ministers and writers
past ages. inspired and uninspired, wi
have done the most to bring souls
Jesus Christ. and find that without
single exception they consecrated the
wit and their humor to Christ. Elij;
used it when he advised the Baalite
as they could not make their god respon
falling tben, tn call loidar aS their %,